The ecology and impacts
of harmful algae (cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates, haptophytes, raphidophytes;
and

Influences of long-term
(decadal+) changes in watershed land use and pollution sources on surface
water quality.

I am
the Director of the Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology (CAAE: http://www.ncsu.edu/wq/)
located in the Department of Plant Biology at NCSU. Our research
team has designed and maintained a 14-year ongoing research and monitoring
program on the Neuse Estuary. We developed and patented an instrument
that allows automated depth profiles of water quality on an hourly basis,
24/7, to track environmental changes, examine the ecology of harmful algae,
and improve assessment of fish kill causality. We also have designed
and maintained a 6-year ongoing research and monitoring program in three
major potable water supply reservoirs in North Carolina. We are working
to combine our real-time, automated sampling capability with microarrays
to detect toxic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), pesticides and other
CECs, and microbial pathogens to improve early warning systems to safeguard
public water supplies. We recently
completed a decadal study on land use changes in the Neuse watershed, emphasizing
the importance of both urban and agricultural pollutant sources. We documented
a striking increase in ammonium concentrations, by more than 500%, in surface
waters affected by numerous confined swine feed operations. The increased
ammonium supply is significantly related to an increase in algal species
such as the raphidophyte, Heterosigma akashiwo, that is potentially
toxic to humans. In earlier
work, we co-discovered potentially toxic estuarine dinoflagellates (Pfiesteria
piscicida, P. shumwayae), stimulated by nutrient over-enrichment,
than can cause major fish kills. The findings provided the foundation for
recent research by toxin chemists at NOAA (Charleston, SC), who described
a group of potent Pfiesteria toxins, new to science, with potential
application in treating memory disorders.